MHA leads the way to amend the Transportation Code
Recently, MHA led the successful effort to lower the re-transfer fee
from the previous 20% amount down to 5%. This new provision applies only to
medallions purchased since transferability was resumed in 2010 under a
pilot
program, which later became a permanent policy. The re-transfer fee --- the
fee charged when the purchaser eventually re-sells the medallion --- has
been reduced from $50,000 down to $12,500.
A copy of the legislation, which became effective on January 2, 2015, is
linked here:
http://www.amlegal.com/pdffiles/sanfran/MTA%20Res.%2014-171.pdf
MHA lobbied new SFMTA taxi director, Kate Toran, to make this change. Kate
had her staff verify our advisement that all other cities with transferable
medallions charge about 5%. The San Francisco Federal Credit Union, which
lends to medallion purchasers, joined in with their full support as the
amendment was being considered by the sfmta board of directors.
MHA board member Carl Macmurdo notes that,
"This change makes the option of purchasing a medallion a lot more
viable for a younger driver who wants to have a taxi driving career."
Fellow MHA board member Athan Rebelos, who purchased his medallion about
three years ago, noted that,
"I hope that people who have bought their medallions the past few years
under Proposition A provisions will realize the importance of belonging to
an organization such as MHA, whose goal is to support and protect all
medallion holders."
